Dragon tree /Dracaena Marginata Problem
October 28, 2018 5:36 PM Subscribe
I recently bought three dragon trees from IKEA and have lost one that had troubling looking mold and seemed to be rotting from the inside out. Now the last large one I have is showing similar signs of mold, I think, but I want to see if I can save it. Could anyone offer insight, please?
I don't think I can attach photos here, but disclaimer: I admit I left the trees in their store pots for too long, and the soil they're in has been pretty damp and seems to not drain well. I've heard Dragon trees like their soil dry in-between waterings, so maybe it's a root-rot issue?
Description: drooping leaves and leaves turning brown at the edges all over the plant. Weird bits of tiny bark-like deposits that are often brown with green spots in the 'cup' where leaves meet the stem. If I tilt the leaf I can pull the deposits out which just look like tiny pieces of bark-like material with green spots. This is what I'm thinking is mold, since my other dragon tree doesn't have these deposits at the bases of the leaves. Should I just throw this plant out, or immediately put it into a drier, more draining soil and maybe treat it with neem oil in the watering solution? Just hard to feed it neem that way when I also have to be careful of overwatering I think...
Am happy to send photos to anyone who wants to see the plant. I've Googled but so far don't see any mention of the deposits I'm seeing. I'm not familiar with any mold that looks like this but that's all I could imagine it to be.
Any advice would be very appreciated!!
I don't think I can attach photos here, but disclaimer: I admit I left the trees in their store pots for too long, and the soil they're in has been pretty damp and seems to not drain well. I've heard Dragon trees like their soil dry in-between waterings, so maybe it's a root-rot issue?
Description: drooping leaves and leaves turning brown at the edges all over the plant. Weird bits of tiny bark-like deposits that are often brown with green spots in the 'cup' where leaves meet the stem. If I tilt the leaf I can pull the deposits out which just look like tiny pieces of bark-like material with green spots. This is what I'm thinking is mold, since my other dragon tree doesn't have these deposits at the bases of the leaves. Should I just throw this plant out, or immediately put it into a drier, more draining soil and maybe treat it with neem oil in the watering solution? Just hard to feed it neem that way when I also have to be careful of overwatering I think...
Am happy to send photos to anyone who wants to see the plant. I've Googled but so far don't see any mention of the deposits I'm seeing. I'm not familiar with any mold that looks like this but that's all I could imagine it to be.
Any advice would be very appreciated!!
Yep, you overwatered it.
The way to save it is to immediately repot it in a slightly larger pot, use a lot of dry sand or gravel with a little potting mix (or extra perlite, vermiculite, etc) to line the bigger pot before transplanting.
At that point, do not water at all until everything is bone dry, including a toothpick stuck an inch or two into the soil right next to the trunk.
Advanced:
Consider doing minor root pruning too.
If it has multiple meristems (tips of trunks/branches), consider looping off one a few inches below its top.
If it has two trunks going into the pot, consider splitting the whole ensemble with a sharp knife and putting it into two pots, each the same size as the original.
Consider using a pencil to poke aeration holes all around the soil surface. In mild cases, this can be enough on its own (combined with letting it dry for weeks)
Caveat:
Even if you do all that, expertly, it may be a goner already. Hard to say without pics, but internal rot of tropical houseplants is one of the hardest things to recover from. I’ve had hundreds of potted plants, across dozens of species, with great success in general. But bad rot caught too late has been one of the very few reasons I’ve ever lost a plant.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:06 PM on October 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
The way to save it is to immediately repot it in a slightly larger pot, use a lot of dry sand or gravel with a little potting mix (or extra perlite, vermiculite, etc) to line the bigger pot before transplanting.
At that point, do not water at all until everything is bone dry, including a toothpick stuck an inch or two into the soil right next to the trunk.
Advanced:
Consider doing minor root pruning too.
If it has multiple meristems (tips of trunks/branches), consider looping off one a few inches below its top.
If it has two trunks going into the pot, consider splitting the whole ensemble with a sharp knife and putting it into two pots, each the same size as the original.
Consider using a pencil to poke aeration holes all around the soil surface. In mild cases, this can be enough on its own (combined with letting it dry for weeks)
Caveat:
Even if you do all that, expertly, it may be a goner already. Hard to say without pics, but internal rot of tropical houseplants is one of the hardest things to recover from. I’ve had hundreds of potted plants, across dozens of species, with great success in general. But bad rot caught too late has been one of the very few reasons I’ve ever lost a plant.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:06 PM on October 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Hi, thank you so much for the answers! Update/follow-up question (if allowed) -- I just started to repot yucca plants that according to my research like the same dry soil conditions. One has been wilting badly and barely had any roots on it at all compared to the other of the same size, which was pretty root bound. But the root bound one, when I pulled it out of the store pot, has tons of little tan 'beads' on the roots, especially at the bottom. Are those insect eggs? I was horrified and stuffed it back into the store pot before I could contaminate the new pot & soil much.
I have noticed an increase in gnats in my apartment since bringing all the plants & soil supplies in, and was planning on topping my pots with a layer of sand which I heard gets rid of gnat issues. But the tons of tan little beads on the roots -- should I throw this plant out?!
posted by dancer4life at 7:01 PM on October 28, 2018
I have noticed an increase in gnats in my apartment since bringing all the plants & soil supplies in, and was planning on topping my pots with a layer of sand which I heard gets rid of gnat issues. But the tons of tan little beads on the roots -- should I throw this plant out?!
posted by dancer4life at 7:01 PM on October 28, 2018
The tan beads are often fertilizer pellets or other additives to a commercial potting media. About the size of a grain of rice squished into a sphere right? Most likely a non-issue.
Fungus gnats can get a bit annoying, but letting the plants dry out more and adding a bit of sand on top will help.
Longer term, if you leave the plants in the same place and continue to have gnat issues, your friendly neighborhood spiders will eventually move in to help you out with that, if you let them.
Realistically, the gnats aren’t hurting anything with respect to the plant, and as long as I don’t have more than a small presence, I don’t mind them.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:16 PM on October 28, 2018
Fungus gnats can get a bit annoying, but letting the plants dry out more and adding a bit of sand on top will help.
Longer term, if you leave the plants in the same place and continue to have gnat issues, your friendly neighborhood spiders will eventually move in to help you out with that, if you let them.
Realistically, the gnats aren’t hurting anything with respect to the plant, and as long as I don’t have more than a small presence, I don’t mind them.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:16 PM on October 28, 2018
Response by poster: Hi again SaltySalticid, thank you so much again for the advice!! But the tan beads I'm seeing on the roots don't strike me as fertilizer pellets -- they're tiny beads and there are probably hundreds I see on roots without even breaking up the root ball (entire pot is root-bound). They're tiny like tiny mustard seeds, maybe even smaller.
posted by dancer4life at 8:24 PM on October 28, 2018
posted by dancer4life at 8:24 PM on October 28, 2018
The beads could be granules of a systemic pesticide or time-release fertilizer. There aren't a lot of insect pests that specifically attack roots, and I'm not aware of any that look like that at any stage of development. I've also seen a fungus that was feeding on the decomposing bark in the potting soil, which looked sort of like you describe. None of these possibilities are going to harm the plant.
Fungus gnats aren't harmful to a mature houseplant either (they can sometimes actually be a problem if you're trying to start something from seed), and are mostly a sign that the soil is from Miracle Gro and/or contains a lot of peat moss. Fungus gnats can also be a sign that the plant is being overwatered, but you knew that already. If the soil is allowed to dry out as much as it needs to, the fungus gnats will go away.
You don't say how long you've had the Yuccas, but it's sadly common for wholesalers to ship pieces of Yucca cane as soon as they start to show new growth above the soil, whether they have a functional root system or not. They're resilient plants and will typically be fine anyway; I imagine most of the people who received a barely-rooted Yucca never know.
It is mildly concerning that the leaves have been wilting on you: is this all of the foliage, or just some of the individual "heads?" (All is a lot more alarming than some. Yuccas can only support just so many growing tips, and it's not unusual for a cane with a lot of heads to drop several until it's down to two or three.)
posted by Spathe Cadet at 7:44 AM on October 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
Fungus gnats aren't harmful to a mature houseplant either (they can sometimes actually be a problem if you're trying to start something from seed), and are mostly a sign that the soil is from Miracle Gro and/or contains a lot of peat moss. Fungus gnats can also be a sign that the plant is being overwatered, but you knew that already. If the soil is allowed to dry out as much as it needs to, the fungus gnats will go away.
You don't say how long you've had the Yuccas, but it's sadly common for wholesalers to ship pieces of Yucca cane as soon as they start to show new growth above the soil, whether they have a functional root system or not. They're resilient plants and will typically be fine anyway; I imagine most of the people who received a barely-rooted Yucca never know.
It is mildly concerning that the leaves have been wilting on you: is this all of the foliage, or just some of the individual "heads?" (All is a lot more alarming than some. Yuccas can only support just so many growing tips, and it's not unusual for a cane with a lot of heads to drop several until it's down to two or three.)
posted by Spathe Cadet at 7:44 AM on October 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
Spathe Cadet has a good read as usual.
There are indeed insects that go for roots, but they are generally a problem in the ground, not in pots, and present differently.
I’ve sometimes found ant eggs and pupae in that location; but it would be very odd to not see adult ants as well, and they wouldn’t hurt your plants anyway. Generally, proceed with caution, but the little beads are not something that would trigger my alarm bells.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:16 AM on October 30, 2018
There are indeed insects that go for roots, but they are generally a problem in the ground, not in pots, and present differently.
I’ve sometimes found ant eggs and pupae in that location; but it would be very odd to not see adult ants as well, and they wouldn’t hurt your plants anyway. Generally, proceed with caution, but the little beads are not something that would trigger my alarm bells.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:16 AM on October 30, 2018
Response by poster: Hi Spathe Cadet and SaltySalticid, thank you very much for the advice and information!! I'm so grateful. I repotted both dragon trees and yuccas into soil with sand added and will try to let them dry out thoroughly before watering again. The soil they were in before held water for a long time and the soil I have seems a bit fluffier, we'll see.
I do have a very dark apartment with no direct sunlight, but I got the yuccas in the clearance section at Lowe's (they were already unhealthy I presume) and wanted to see if they'll do okay kept by my windows. Which they actually have been pretty tough considering my neglect and leaving them in the store pots so long and not paying attention to the water retention of the soil. I think I've had them between 1-2 months.
posted by dancer4life at 11:04 AM on October 30, 2018
I do have a very dark apartment with no direct sunlight, but I got the yuccas in the clearance section at Lowe's (they were already unhealthy I presume) and wanted to see if they'll do okay kept by my windows. Which they actually have been pretty tough considering my neglect and leaving them in the store pots so long and not paying attention to the water retention of the soil. I think I've had them between 1-2 months.
posted by dancer4life at 11:04 AM on October 30, 2018
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Transplant it into a terra cotta pot that will fit it at its current size. Put the plant somewhere where it will get some light and ventilation, and (important) somewhere where it will be out of your way. These guys seem thrive on neglect. It will be easier to avoid the temptation to water (wait until it's realllllly dry, then water thoroughly, repeat) if you don't walk past it everyday.
posted by Drosera at 6:04 PM on October 28, 2018 [1 favorite]